


Project Souls

by Shadowmaster68



Category: Dark Souls (Video Games)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-05 00:30:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5354081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowmaster68/pseuds/Shadowmaster68





	1. Prologue

"Is everything ready?"

"Yes sir, the subjects are all primed and ready for immersion."

"Excellent. The number of subjects?"

"Ten thousand, with one thousand viewers, ten each, with a cycled viewing that shifts progression every ten seconds."

"Percent error?"

"Currently resides at about six-point-four, but that's not factoring in the variables themselves, or that the real run can greatly vary from the running simulations."

"In your opinion, does the reward out weigh the risk?"

"Honestly sir, this experiment is seriously inhumane, but if it works, yes, I think the rewards are worth it."

"Good. Ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention. I want to thank each and everyone for volunteering for Project Reflex. I know some of you had personal gains from this, others business, some even wanting to be future participants. Whatever your reasons, your assistance has brought, and will bring all of mankind, to a brighter future."

_Username: lordofsunlight_   
_Password: cinderandfire_

_"Welcome Director Gwyn. Begin Project Souls?"_   
_"Command: Launch Project Souls"_   
_"Beginning Project Souls."_


	2. Chapter 1

**_In the Age of Ancients,_**  
**_the world was unformed, shrouded by fog._**

_**A land of grey crags, archtrees, and everlasting dragons.**_

**_But then there was Fire._**

**_And with Fire, came Disparity._**

**_Heat and cold,_**  
_**life and death,**_  
**_and of course…Light and Dark._**

**_Then, from the Dark, They came,_**  
**_and found the Souls of Lords, within the flame._**

**_Nito, the first of the dead_**  
**_the Witch of Izalith, and her Daughters of Chaos_**  
**_Gwyn, the Lord of Sunlight, and his faithful knights,_**  
**_and the furtive pygmy, so easily forgotten._**

**_With the Strength of Lords, they challenged the dragons._**

**_Gwyn's mighty bolts peeled apart their stone scales._**

**_The witches weaved great firestorms._**

**_Nito unleashed a miasma of death and disease._**

**_And Seath the Scaleless betrayed his own,_**  
**_and the dragons were no more._**

**_Thus began the Age of Fire._**

**_But soon, the flames will fade, and only Dark will remain._**

**_Even now, there are only embers,_**  
**_and man sees not light, but only endless nights._**

**_And amongst the living, are seen, carriers of the accursed Darksign._**

**_Yes, indeed._**

**_The Darksign brands the Undead._**

**_And in this land,_**  
**_the Undead are corralled and led to the north,_**  
**_where they are locked away, to await the end of the world._**

These words seemed to echo in my mind as I sat in the dark room. I looked up and a black box filled my vision. _Choose your class_ it read. My choices were _Warrior, Knight, Wanderer, Thief, Bandit, Hunter, Sorcerer, Pyromancer, Cleric, and Deprived_. A small side box appeared to the right when I hovered my finger over each choice, along with a larger box on the left that showed what I looked like. After a few minutes of debate I decided on _Knight._

Next a new pop-up appeared asking _What is your gift?_ A new series of pop-ups appeared providing options of, _Goddess's Blessing, Black Fire bomb, Twin Humanities, Binoculars, Pendant, Master Key, Tiny Being's Ring, and Old Witch's Ring._ This time there was no image of what the item was, only a description, after reading them a few times, it finally clicked what I was doing.

"This is the character creation from Dark Souls!" I shouted in shock. It had been years since I had played the old game remastered for Virtual Reality, but I still recognized the items and classes. I quickly chose the Master Key, remembering it was necessary for my usual build for this game.

The box vanished, and in its place were the words, _Welcome to Dark Souls,_ as the last line was finally said:

**_…This is your fate._**

I blinked a few times and found myself staring at my armored knees. I heard something from above, and I looked up just in time to see a body crash to the floor in front of me, a white floating object above it. I looked at the hole in my ceiling to see a knight looking down at me before turning away. I looked back down at the body, with the white object mobbing and flowing like a fire. I pushed myself up, unable to move my gaze from the enchanting, dance-like movement.

I finally broke my gaze and looked around my cell, taking everything in. My cell was extremely small, with little to nothing of note. I moved to the corpse and knelt down before it. I carefully reached forward to poke the white object. A text box appeared, asking if I wanted to _Pillage Corpse?_ I poked the yes option and received _Dungeon Cell Key -1._

Suddenly my vision changed, in the upper left hand corner was a circle with a grayed out _00,_ in it, and two bars, a larger red bar on top of a smaller green bar, both of which seemed to almost come from the circle itself. In the lower left hand corner were four boxes clustered together, three of them were empty, and the one on the right showed what appeared to be a sword hilt, buried into the ground, there was suddenly a small flash of white and I was then holding said sword hilt. I eyed it cautiously, but when I didn't see anything of any real note I looked at the last few things of note in my vision. In the lower right hand corner was a small black box with a white zero right aligned inside it, and at the upper right hand corner, in white text, were the words _Death Count : 0_ , and beneath that was, _Total Play Time: 3:00, 3:01, 3:02_ , it was quietly counting up with my time in the game.

I recognized most of the things in my vision from the last time I had played this game. The circle was my Humanity count, with the red bar my health and the green my stamina, and a few practice swings with my broken weapon reaffirmed this for me. The boxes in the one corner were a quick access menu that allowed me to change weapons, shields, items, or spells (even though I never used those), by simply shouting out the intended box. The other box was my souls count, and if I remembered correctly, I used my souls not only as a currency, but also to level up in this game. The only really new things to me were the _Death Count_ and _Total Play Time_ were new to me, but those were both straight forward and simple to me.

After taking one more look around the barren room, I moved up the few stairs there were to my cell door, which I gently tapped. _Open?_ appeared in the middle of my vision, and after another glance over it shoulder, I tapped the yes option. The cell door opened slowly with a loud groan, and I stepped out of my cell and into the corridor.

The hallway was long with a cell on the right, and torches on the left wall. A quick glance into one of the cells showed an undead kneeling, seeming to be in prayer. A bit further in a cell door was smashed in and bent, with lose bricks all around it. Past that was an undead standing there with its head in its hands.

“Excuse me?” I tried to get their attention, surprised by how dry and raspy my voice sounded. I tried again when the undead didn’t respond, I even waved my hand in front of their face, trying to prompt a response of some kind. Finally I lightly tapped its shoulder, and it stumbled back as if I had punched it, while a white **0** flashed above its head.

It let out a hiss and lunged at me, I reared back reflexively bringing my rand hand across to try and block the incoming attack, accidentally slashing it across its chest with the broken weapon in my hand. A white **25** flashed above its head, as it whacked me back as step as my health flashed with a small chunk of the red bar shrank into the rest of the bar.

The undead gave me another growl and I knew it was preparing for another attack, so I took a step back hoping to put some distance between me and it, only for me to step onto one of the lose brick, tripping over myself and falling onto the pile of stones. The undead then lunged forward, smacking me on the upside of my armored head.

I glared angrily up at it as i decided that had been enough. I pushed myself up as it growled at me again. I quickly slashed at the undead again and again, and as it stumbled back from the second swing, I let out a loud yell as I swung my pitifully small weapon downward on it, doing some extra damage and finally killing it. I let out a small huff as I attempted to get my breathing under control again, gaining a measly **20 souls** from the encounter.

I let out a mental groan as i realized I had just struggled with the very first enemy of this game for three whole minutes. There was a major difficulty spike coming, and if I didn’t get my act together, that death counter was going to shoot up like a rocket. I rolled my neck a few times, and stretched myself out a little bit, before turning back down the hallway, ready to progress again.

I moved a bit further down to see an undead that seemed to be pressing up against the wall. Unwilling to risk an attack from behind later on, I rushed to strike at the undead's own exposed backside. I blindly swung my weapon around a few times, not giving the undead a chance to fight back. I quickly dispatched the undead, gaining another **20 souls** my stamina bar flashed at me that it was empty, so I leaned against the wall, letting my adrenaline wear off and stamina bar regenerate.

As I stood there, I heard thunderous footsteps nearby. I looked around, preparing myself for another fight, only to see a small window in the wall across the hall from me. Past the bars I could see a massive monster lumbering around in circles, giving off a menacing air to it that I could feel even from here.I shuddered slightly at the sight of it and began moving up the stairs, wanting to spend as little time as I could in the same area as that massive beast.

I slowed down when I reached the the corridor at the top, feeling myself relax a little bit when I couldn’t hear the footsteps anymore. At the end of the corridor was a small room with water in most of it. In one little corner of the room was an undead, sitting crosslegged on the floor. I carefully stepped off the small ledge that I had been standing on into the water, and approached the undead. If it knew I was there it showed no outward signs of it.

I used the same strategy as before on this one, and managed to kill the poor creature before it had even managed to stand up fully. I stumbled a bit when my stamina bar was drained, and only just stopped myself from face planting into the water. I leaned heavily against the wall and made a mental note to increase my stamina when I leveled up with my **60 souls,** because this recovery time would be the death of me later in the game.

When my stamina bar was full, I ventured out of the flooded room, into a large circular one with a ladder going up out of it. I could see the walls were all damp and slick, making me glad I had chose a class that had included both shoes and gloves. I quickly climbed up the ladder to a much dryer room with a few torches within it. I glanced around, but upon not seeing anything of note, I moved out the doorway into a large courtyard where I could see the sky. Even if it was just clouds, it was a relief to not have a ceiling over my head for a little bit. I glanced down at my feet and saw three lines of strange text that I didn’t recognize. I gently poked them and a text box appeared in my vision asking _Read Message?_

Upon pressing the yes button the lines of text changed to read I sighed with relief at that as I moved toward the center of the courtyard, where there was a sword shoved into what appeared to be a wooden plank, with a soft warm glow where the sword and wood met. I approached the sword and looked it up and down, poked the hilt and was asked _Light Bonfire?_ I didn’t even hesitate to hit the yes option, and as a fire roared to life at the base, the orange words flashed across my vision, **YOU LIT THE BONFIRE.** I sighed in relief and sat down in front of it, letting its warmth envelope me as it flashed the world around me in an orangish-green color.

I sat there for another moment, just basking in the light and heat it gave off, before I decided I should continue on. I stood up and moved to the stairs with the giant door at the top. I stopped in front of it when I heard the same stomping footsteps that I had heard earlier. I whirled around, expecting the monstrosity from before to be behind me, but the courtyard was still empty.

I mentally groaned and turned back to the door that was concealing the gargantuan beast. I poked the door, fully expecting a pop-up asking me if I wanted to open the door, fully expecting a pop-up asking if I wanted to open the door, except none showed up. I looked around, as if it may have appeared somewhere other than the middle of my vision. I poked the door with a bit more force, thinking maybe it hadn’t registered the first time, but it still wouldn’t budge. I then put my hands on both doors and attempted to actually push them open, because I didn’t see any other way to move forward. The doors thundered and shook for a moment, as they began to slowly inch open. When they were wide enough apart that I could easily step through, I stopped and just took in the large room.

Straight across from me were two equally large doors, and to the left and right were columns that seemed to hold up a very small room each. In between all the columns were large urns that I could easily have fit inside of. One of the most noticeable things about the room though was the large central floor. It seemed to almost have two small steps leading into it, and the floor itself seemed like a pool, with wave like hills and dips in it. Scattered on and around it were piles of bricks, usually the larger piles seeming to be at the top of the “waves.”

I stepped further in and could see some torch light, with two torches on the left wall, almost seeming to outline a door frame. I continued toward the larger doors when the smaller door, which was actually an iron gate, began to rise. I started to turn to it just as something dropped from the sky. A ton of dust rose up around it as the whole floor began to shake. I fought to keep my balance as I tried to see what had dropped. I couldn’t see much, but what I could see were two bone like wings, something that looked similar to a crown of some sort, and a club head that was easily as big as I was.

_Begin Dark Souls OST - Taurus Demon_

It rose to full height and I could see that it looked exactly like the thing I had seen earlier. I took a setback in fear, and a message flashed on my screen that read _Get away!_ Well no duh I wanted to shout at it. Right as the message disappeared, a health bar appeared in the lower middle of my vision, with **Asylum Demon** hovering just above the left end of it in pure white text. The demon then jumped out of its cloud of dust at me, swinging its club down, just as loud instrumental music began to play with a choice chanting some kind of unknown language. Before I could get out of the way, the club had knocked me on my back, the massive weapon resting on top of me, leaving only my head free of it. Even through the large cloud of dust that had risen around me, I could see the Asylum Demon’s glowing red eyes as it glared at me, furious that only a quarter of my health had been taken. It snarled at me as some of the dust cleared and I could see its yellow teeth almost glowing at me.

It quickly hefted its weapon up as I pushed myself up. I looked up at it just in time to see it starting to swing again. Without thinking I charged at it, the club swinging uselessly above my head. Seeing an opening, I tried to hit the demon, but my measly **25** damage barely even put a dent in its health. I wanted to shout at it, begging to know “How am I supposed to beat this thing!”

It started using its boney wings to lift itself into the air, and then I remembered, “The door!” As it continued to raise itself further into the air I made a mad dash for the door that had opened earlier. The behemoth crashed with a loud booming sound as I passed between the columns. I slid through the gate as the Asylum Demon thundered after me, and the iron gat slammed shut with a clang as the beast harmlessly bounced its weapon off the wall above the door.

_End Dark Souls OST - Taurus Demon_

I stopped at the top of the stairs that led further down and away from the boss, letting my stamina bar refill itself and my breathing to stop sounding like I had just finished a marathon. During my small break I dared a look over my shoulder back at the Asylum Demon only to see it glaring furiously at me. I audibly gulped and started down the stairs, wanting to put just a bit more distance between me and the boos. At the base though a small doorway, I could see the soft light of an unlit bonfire. I gave a sigh of relief as I lit the bonfire and just relaxed in its soothing waves. I laid back and just let the emotions wash over me, that had been epic, one part of me wanted to cheer, while another part wanted to curl up into a small ball and shudder all my fear out, because seeing that thing in first person was way more terrifying than the original game’s third-person perspective led you to believe.

After an encounter like that I really didn’t want to keep playing, but there was no way I was going to quit before I finished the tutorial. I gave a loud sigh of defeat as I pushed myself up and continued on. As I moved down the siding of the room I was in another message made itself seen on the ground. This one was already translated, and stepping on it put its message in the middle of my vision _Get your Shield!_

A bit further forward and on the left was another door, this one leading to an outside corridor. The first thing I noticed was the soft glow of two items just waiting for me to collect them. The second thing I noticed was the undead with a bow and lots of arrows firing at me. I scowled at it as I side stepped its first arrow and grabbed my first item, my shield. Inside the room that it had been in front of was a message that said;

 _Shout Menu: Open Menu,_  
_Arms Icon: Change Equipment_

I frowned at that, that’s a new feature, I thought. “Menu!” I shouted at the air, and sure enough, four Icons filled my vision. I poked the one with two swords crossing in front of a shield, and my vision changed to three rows of boxes, with some of them taken by images that mostly showed what they were supposed to be for. I poked the first open box by the small dagger leaning on a shield. My vision changed again so that the Arms Icon was gold and in the upper left hand corner with _Equipment,_ and _Select item to equip._ Underneath those was _Straight Sword Hilt_ and _Tower Kite Shield_. I poked that one and a red wax seal appeared in the upper left hand of its image box. Immediately after that it took me back to the previous screen, I ignored the stats section on the right, figuring they would do me more good when I was trying to level up, and tried to find a close or exit option. When I still didn’t see one I tried yelling, “Close!” and I was back to the four boxes that made up my menu. With another shout of “Menu!” I was back to my normal vision.

I then stepped out into the corridor again, this time with my shield up, and I rapidly approached the bow wielding undead, easily blocking its arrows. As I approached it turned and ran, though I kept pursuit until it rounded a corner and I was standing over the other item out here. I picked it up and received my Straight Sword and I equipped it as quickly as I could. I gave it a few practice swings, and found its weight and length were a nice feel for me, and it didn’t completely drain my stamina bar.

With my new weapon I continued after the undead rounding the corner through a doorway to a staircase. I moved to the top of the staircase and brought my shield up just before the arrow that had been flying at my face could hit me. I charged at the undead, easily blocking its arrows with my shields, before I was basically on top of it before ti got a chance to fight back, I took it down with only two swings. A bit further down was another doorway but it had a white swirling barrier of some kind. I came up to it and carefully poked it and the message appeared _Traverse the White Light?_ When I pressed the yes option, the fog became darker and spread out away from the doorway. I stepped through and found myself in an open stone corridor of some kind. I looked to my left and saw a ledge which gave a view of the open courtyard from before.

Further to the right were two staircases, one on the left that went up and the one on the right went downward. I quickly went down the stairs on the right, and found an iron gate at the bottom, I opened it and jogged over to the bonfire, relaxing in its warmth again. After a minute of relying I got back up, glancing over at the Asylum Demon’s door, but decided I wanted to explore that other path first.I jogged back through the iron door and back up the stairs, I stopped in front of the other set letting mistiming recover before I slowly advanced up them with my shield before me.

I barely made it a forth of the way up before there was a rumbling noise, I sprinted down the steps just barely avoiding being rolled over by the massive iron boulder. It smashed through the wall, leaving a massive hole there. I peeked in and saw a knight collapsed on top of some lose bricks. “Hello?” I called to them when I got closer.

“…Oh, you…You’re no Hollow, eh?…Thank goodness…  
…I’m done for, I’m afraid…  
…I’ll die soon, then lose my sanity…  
…I wish to ask something of you…  
…You and I, we’re both Undead…Hear me out, will you?”

“Yes, of course,” I replied, feeling horrible for the dying knight.

“…Regrettably, I have failed in my mission…  
…But perhaps you can keep the torch lit…  
…There is an old saying my family…  
…Thou who art Undead, art chosen…  
…In thine exodus from the Undead Asylum, machete pilgrimage to the land of Ancient Lords…  
…When you ringeth the Bell of Awakening, the fate of the Undead thou shalt know.  
…Well, now you know…And I can die with hope in my heart…  
…Oh, one last thing…Here, take this.  
…An Estus Flask, an Undead favorite.”

Immediately I received a notification that read _Estus Flask-5_ and the bottom box of the four showed the image of the golden flask with the number five beneath that, and the name of the item to the right to it.

“…Oh, and this…”

A new notification came up that said _Undead Asylum F2 East Key-1._

“…Now I must bid farewell…  
…I would hate to harm you after death…So, go now…  
…And thank you…”

I nodded respectfully and headed out the hole again. I moved up the stairs again and heard a sword slash followed a faint whooshing sound and I gained another hundred souls, putting my counter at **180**. At the top of the stairs the undead there charged me. I quickly brought my shield up, bouncing the Hollow’s flimsy blow off of it. While it was still recovering I quickly brought it down with a couple of quick swings. Behind the now dead Hollow was an iron bar door, I opened it with the key I had received from the knight earlier. Behind the door was a long corridor that led out to an open area, where a message there read _Resting at a bonfire revives enemies._ surrounded by lose bricks. A bit further forward was another pathway, but a Hollow staggered out of it before I had a chance to go myself.

I easily dispatched that one, just as another came barreling out with its weapon raised high above its head. I blocked that and quickly slashed through it, moving on without a second thought to the now dead AI. Around the corner was a narrow walkway, with stairs in the middle on the left leading up to another fog wall. On the right there was a barrier of iron to keep Undead from escaping, or maybe just committing suicide, both were liable with this hell hole. On the stairs was an Undead with bow and arrows, firing on me. I easily got to him, taking a stray arrow into my shoulder as punishment for not getting my shield up in time, but quickly disposed of the enemy there after. I was unsure as how to use one of my Estus Flasks, as there had not been any instructions given on that. I tried poking at it, but that was part of my display that I couldn’t interact with physically. I tried ducking, pointing downward, and stabbing the ground, but still the game remained unresponsive. Finally I shouted the item’s name, and that did the trick, as my health quickly began to regenerate, and it subtracted one of my five away.

When my health was back to full I ignored the stairs and the fog wall for now and instead moved on to the other door that was a bit further away. Inside I found a lone Hollow with far more armor than any of the others I had battled yet. It was equipped in actual armor of some kind, along with a helmet, and a shield, using a straight sword similar to mine. It charged right at me, though I easily back up out of the way of its attack with the sword, but it quickly followed up with a shield thrust, which I only just managed to side step. I moved to slash it with my own blade, and managed a single hit before it brought its shield up, my next blow reverberating through my arm as it bounced off. We both immediately backed away from each other with our shields up until it came charging at me again. I easily blocked its first blow and got in another two swings, taking it down.

I nodded my head to the fallen foe, as it had been smart enough to know how to put up a proper fight and moved to the back of the room, where there was another iron door. The game alerted me that it was locked when I tried to open it, so I was forced to back away and out of the room. As soon as I stepped out of the doorway though, my stamina bar flashed three times, before shattering, including the sound effect of course, and then a message appeared in my vision, _Unrestrained Movement Enabled. Good luck._

Unrestrained movement? That was odd. Dark Souls was known for still having a stamina bar, despite the increasing number of games similar to it that lacked one. The forums were always full of different people begging for the stamina bar to be removed in an update that goes series wide. Personally I never made it passed the original version, so I wasn’t sure how much of a difference it made in the virtual reality version of the game, but still, it was a common complaint of almost everyone who played it. Did From Software finally give in and send out a patch for the players, but if that was the case, I should have heard of it, one of my friends plays this game all the time, and almost always complains about the stamina bar.

I decided to ponder more on this when I took my break later, so with that I moved out of the room and back onto the walkway.

I moved up to the fog wall at the top of the stairs and poked it, however unlike before, my hand just passed through it. I pulled it out, staring down at it, and then back at the fog wall. Was this part of the Unrestrained Movement I just gained, I questioned. I went back to the pile of bricks and tried to pick one up. It easily came up with me, just as it would in the real world, definitely part of Unrestrained Movement, I thought. In-game-objects, like the brick, are not really capable of being personally interacted with. They could be shifted or turned slightly, and could prove a hindrance to players tripping them and throwing off their balance in the middle of a fight, but they couldn’t turned or kicked aside, and someone definitely shouldn’t be able to pick it up.

I carried the brick with me back to the fog wall and threw it at it. It bounced off the rolling fog as if it were a real wall, and landed at my feet, before it turned pure white and vanished. I moved back to the brick pile to try something else when I saw the same brick reappear in the same spot I had picked it up from. I frowned, an idea forming in my head before I picked it up and turned to the railing on the side. I easily threw the stone brick over the side, and turned to watch the pile again. Sure enough, it flashed back into exactly the same place.

Interesting, I thought, so the objects have a reset point just like the enemies. The objects just don’t require a visitation to a bonfire, the have some kind of timer, or indicator for when they need to return to their reset point. So I guess that means I can interact with anything in this world, it’ll just fix itself after a few seconds. Enough scientist moments, I need to beat the boss. I moved back to the fog wall and steeled myself for another encounter. I stepped through the wall and back into the large room, except this time, I was starting out above the Asylum Demon, on some sort of balcony.

_Begin Dark Souls OST: Taurus Demon_

I was staring down at the large demon, with it glaring furiously up at me. How the tables have turned, I couldn't help but think with a laugh. I backed up to the edge of the fog wall, and with a roar I jumped off of the edge and plummeted down at the demon. I brought my sword to bare and slashed at it, managing to actually it in the head, forcing to almost collapse from the pain as I took over half of its health bar. I pulled my sword out and jumped off as it pushed itself back up. I slashes at its called form a couple of times before it lashed out, hitting me and pushing me back, taking an eighth of my health bar. I slid back, surprised, that's not one of its moves, does that mean the free movement applies to enemies and bosses as well? As if the Asylum Demon could read my mind, it made a sideways swipe at me with its club as it finished pushing itself up to full height.

I jumped back, only just barely avoiding the swing, but was left wide open for its follow through coming from above. I quickly raised my shield, and had to keep from laughing and crying at how pitiful it was compared to the club head. It slammed down on the shield and I was shoved backward, sliding across the bricks, my health bar unmoving. I glanced at my shield, surprised that not only had it saved me, but it had also survived such a blow. As long as it hits my shield first I'll be fine, I thought.

The demon swung its club at my right, forcing me to spin and raise my shield, taking the blow and feeling it reverberate up my arm, but this time I only slid a foot or two, as it raised its weapon above its head again. I moved as quickly as I could toward the demon, but I could barely move out of the way, in time. My armor's weighing me down! There wouldn't be anywhere near enough time to try and change it out of something in this fight, I thought with a scowl.

I reached the boss and slashed another couple of times, just barely avoiding its sweeping attack at its feet. I backed up, an idea starting to form in my mind. I put myself just at the edge of its range, just waiting. The boss seemed to hesitate striking me, as if it knew I was up to something. We just stared at each other for a moment, before the boss finally seemed to decide to strike, as it raised its weapon and swung downward from the left, I leapt to the right as soon as I saw the swing coming down, and charged right at it. I couldn't help but yell as I prepared to strike it, striking it's leg just as it's weapon hit the ground. I quickly followed through with two rapid strikes against it, and then the whole monster went stiff. It trembled for a second, before it released a vicious roar, and fell forward, beginning to fade, and was gone before it cold hit the ground. The words **You Defeated** appeared in my vision, and I felt a surge of pride, as well as exhaustion.

_End Dark Souls OST: Taurus Demon_

I sat down down and just attempted to catch my breath. I had taken relatively no damage during the fight, but the speed I had been required to react was taxing on my mind. My vision finally flashed at me, telling me I had received the item _Big Pilgrim's key_ , as well as _1 humanity_. I gave a groan, but pushed myself up. I may have beaten the boss, but I hadn't cleared the area yet. I would sign out when I reached the next area. I moved to the door and just pushed against, it, it sliding open since I had the key now, it opened without any sort of issue.

Outside was a cliff going up, with ruins of old buildings and a light amount of snow covering some of the ruins. I slowly worked my way up the cliff, admiring how pretty the place was, and the mountains in the distance. I reached the top, and just stopped to admire the mountains and the view. Suddenly, a large bird flew up from below with its talons extended toward me. It grabbed me and started flying off.

**_Only, in the ancient legends it is stated,_**  
**_that one day an Undead shall be chosen_**  
**_to leave the Undead Asylum, in pilgrimage,_**  
**_To the land of the ancient lords._**


	3. Chapter 3

Dear Readers,

So, I'm going to be honest with all you readers for a moment. My life has gotten a whole lot more difficult all of a sudden. Nothing is really wrong, no one is hurt, I'm just so…busy. It's my senior year of high school, I have a job, and I just find myself with, significantly less time than I used to have, and as a result, in barely writing these days.

So what does all of that mean?

It means that I am subjecting this work to an official hiatus. I want to be perfectly clear, I am NOT abandoning this piece, I still love it, the idea behind it, and the ideas of where it can go. But because I have so little time on my hands these days, I'm not writing for it, and because of that, I'm pausing this until I have more free time to write, and work on updating this. I really appreciate any and all patience and understanding that I receive, and I also understand any and all impatience and frustration that this causes. I hope that you can find it in yourself to forgive me pushing the pause button on this piece.

I'm sorry,  
Shadowmaster68


End file.
